Opposition Leader Angus Taylor will soon unveil his overhauled front seat while signaling a shift to the right with a focus on issues such as immigration.
The newly elected Liberal leader spent his first few days outlining key priorities after ousting the party’s first female leader, Sussan Ley, on Friday after weeks of infighting.
Policy announcements are expected to be accompanied by a revamped front bench, with exiled Conservatives and leadership agitators Andrew Hastie and Jacinta Nampijinpa Price set to return.
“They are great members of our team,” Taylor said on Sunday of the pair, whose previous frontbench stints ended due to migration-related issues.
Although he gave few details about his party’s approach, Taylor pledged to implement tougher immigration policies, repeatedly flagging plans to reduce the flow of migrants into the country and tighten screening.
“The (migration) numbers under Labor have just been extraordinary – far more than what this country can absorb,” he said.
“The standards have been too low, the numbers have been too high and we have not explicitly closed the door to people who reject our way of life.”
The Hume MP said he would unveil a full policy “in the coming days”.
Taylor has emphasized that the coalition is not trying to become a ‘One Nation lite’ as this would erode voter support for the anti-immigration party.
The first poll since Taylor became Liberal leader, published by Nine newspapers on Monday, showed Labor with 32 per cent of the primary vote with One Nation and the Coalition tied for 23 per cent.
The Resolve poll of 1,800 people, conducted between February 8 and February 14, showed a Taylor-led coalition three percentage points ahead of an opposition led by Ley.
One Nation recorded primary support of 27 percent in the latest Newspoll, conducted before Taylor Ley ousted as leader, while the Coalition was on 18 percent.
Former immigration official Abul Rizvi said Taylor’s sharp, tough stance on immigration could be directly influenced by the rise of One Nation.
“He reads the polls as well as anyone else,” Rizvi said.
However, he noted that strong character requirements already existed for migrants seeking to enter Australia, and these had only been tightened by hate crime laws introduced after the Bondi terror attack.
Taylor and Deputy Jane Hume have also repeatedly promised lower taxes, a renewed focus on housing affordability and the end of an “ideological approach” to energy policy.
Hume said Australia must be “open-minded” on nuclear energy if the country wants to cut emissions and make energy cheaper.
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